Biological Psychology 303 Fall 11 Lecture 1

Biopsychology: the study of the biological basis of behavior the study of :  Neuroanatomy: structure of NS  Neurochemistry: chemical bases of neural activity  Neuroendocrinology: interactions btw NS & endocrine system  Neuropathology: disorders of NS  Neuropharmacology: drugs effects on NS – neural activity  Neurophysiology: function & activity of the NS Neuroscience

Biopsychology  Physiological Psychology: neural mechanisms of behavior by direct manipulation of the brain (Experimental)  Psychopharmacology: neural activity and behavior with drugs (Experimental & Applied)  Neuropsychology: psychological effects of brain damage in humans (Applied)  Psychophysiology: relation bwt physiological activity & psychological processes in humans – non invasive (Experimental..also Applied)  Comparative Psychology: compare behavior btw species, evolutionary level (experimental)  Cognitive Psychology: non invasive study of brain, cognition, information processing (Applied, Experimental) Divisions

Behavioral Neuroscientist… The impact the Brain has on behavior… that’s a no brainer Psychopharmacology+ Comparative Psychology + Neuroscience

But what do you really know about it?

Is Einstein’s Brai n Bigger Than Your Brain ?

Can listening to Mozart make you smarter?

What color is your brain?

You Get New Brain Wrinkles When You Learn Something…

Alcohol Kills Brain Cells…..

Egyptians Indian Chinese Greeks - necessary for life - emotion HB Aristotle I get no respect…

Hippocrates ( B.C) Galen ( A.D)

Will the human brain ever completely understand its own workings? 3 major debates Mind vs Brain (monism/dualism) Localism vs Holism Nature of neural communication "The brain, the masterpiece of creation, is almost unknown to us." Nicolaus Steno, 1669

3 major debates Mind vs Brain (monism/dualism)

Rene Descartes ( ) Mind-Body Question  Dualist: mind separate from body  Mechanist: Body is like a machine  Mind controls the machine  Body tells mind about the environment hydraulic model Pipes = nerves Water = fluids in body Hidden Value = Pineal Sensations, memories and other mental functions produced as animal spirits flowing through “pores” in the brain controlled by the pineal gland

Control Valve: Pineal Gland “Seat of the Soul” First technical model for the NS “Controls the flow of thought to consciousness”

Innervation of the Pineal Dependent on the Light/Dark Cycle

Mind vs Brain??? Monism: Mind is product of brain Dualism: Brain is physical mind is not Mind-Body Question..are you a monist or a dualist? Debate: Mind vs Brain Biopsychologist: the mind is just an illusion, a sense of mind is nothing more than the awareness of what the brain is doing

3 major debates Mind vs Brain (monism/dualism) Still up for debate…

Luigi Galvani ( ) Italian Physician Anatomist Next Debate: Nature of Neural Communication: Settled "While one of those who were assisting me touched lightly, and by chance, the point of his scalpel to the internal crural nerves of the frog, suddenly all the muscles of its limbs were seen to be so contracted that they seemed to have fallen into tonic convulsions. “  Electrical Stimulation of frog legs  Contraction of the muscles “Animal Electricity”

Johannes Muller ( ) German Physiologist  Doctrine of specific nerve energies  All nerves carry electrical signals  Different nerves = different outcomes Debate: Neural Communication

Camillo Golgi ( ) Italian Physician: Silver Staining Method – continuous mass of tissues…one cytoplasm (holism) Santiago Ramon y Cajal ( ) Spanish Histologist Labeled Cells “neuron doctrine” – discrete entities Nobel Prize 1906: Research on structure of the nervous Debate: Nature of Neural Communication

1.Neurons are discrete and autonomous cells that can interact 2.Synapses are gaps that separate neurons 3.Information is transmitted in one direction from dendrites (input) to the axon (output) Debate: Nature of Neural Communication

3 major debates Nature of Neural Communication Settled…

Franz Joseph Gall ( ) German Physician Neuroanatomist  brought Anatomy & Psychology together  discrete regions of brain controls specific functions = mental state  localization Phrenology (personology) Next Debate: Localism vs Holism

Phineas Gage ( ) 25 yrs. Explosion accident (1848) impulsive, unreliable, profane “was no longer Gage.”

Reasoning Planning Speech Produce Movement Emotions Problem solving Personality Movement Orientation Recognition Perception of stimuli Visual Processing Perception & recognition of auditory stimuli Memory Speech Comprehension Forebrain telencephalon Broca’s Wernicke’s

Wilder Penfield ( ) American-Born Canadian Neurosurgeon: Greatest neurosurgeon of all times mapped the brain direct stimulation of the brain “Grandmother Cell"

Localism vs holism?

Donald O. Hebb ( ) Canadian Psychologist “The Organization of Behavior” (1949) First comprehensive theory on how psychological phenomena might be produced by BRAIN ACTIVITY  perceptions  emotions  thoughts  memories A large brain, like large government, may not be able to do simple things in a simple way. Donald O. Hebb Most Valuable Player

Hebb based his theories humans and animals clinical case studies logical arguments = eclectic approach became a hallmark of biopsych “Cell Assemblies” Synaptic transmission Material basis mental associations “Connectionism” LTP

3 major debates Localism vs Holism a little of both going on…

New debate Watson & Crick ( 1953) Nature vs Nurture Nature 171, (1953) Molecular structure of Nucleic Acids WATSON, J. D. & CRICK, F. H. C. Medical Research Council Unit for the Study of Molecular Structure of Biological Systems, Cavendish Laboratory, Cambridge. A Structure for Deoxyribose Nucleic Acid discovered chemical structure of DNA

New debate Rosalind Franklin Nature vs Nurture discovered chemical structure of DNA

New debates Nature vs Nurture J. Craig Venter Celera Genomic <> Francis Collins Human Genome Project (NIH) Sequencing of the human genome: “the book if life” “NCBI Genome Project” (0.11 seconds)

New debates Nature vs Nurture